


Moments of Memory

by kirasha



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-15
Updated: 2008-08-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 17:46:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1313677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirasha/pseuds/kirasha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes love doesn't come in like a lion. Sometimes it is the quiet rock upon which a life can be rebuilt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moments of Memory

_Dancin' when the stars go blue  
Dancin' when the evening fell  
Dancin' in your wooden shoes  
In a wedding gown_  
  
  
It had been three annuals since Wyatt had seen Ambrose in anything resembling loose and casual attire. Back then, the man had still been 'Glitch', half-brained with double the heart. The two of them and DG had just saved Raw, the viewer, from the Papay, only to be chased to the edge of a cliff by a bunch of Papay runners. Only two choices presented themselves -- jump and pray the river broke their fall, or stand and become the next meal for the runners. Of course, they'd all jumped. Later, as they were trying to dry off and get warm, Glitch had shucked his battered coat and used it as a blanket by the fire while the rest of him dried out.  
  
Somehow, it was not surprising in the least that when Ambrose dressed down, he did it elegantly.  
  
Gone was the sharp, pressed coat that had replaced Glitch's old one. Gone was the tailored vest that was truly only visible on the rare occasions that coat was unbuttoned. Gone were the sharply glossed shoes that tapped through the hallways of the Palace in time to the adviser's brisk walk.  
  
The crisp white shirt was still there, all but a single button near his navel undone to reveal the thin stripped undershirt worn underneath. Suspenders that normally kept the somewhat loose fitting trousers from trailing at the heels now hung loosely at his sides, allowing the cuffs of soft linen trousers to dwarf long, thin feet Wyatt could not remember ever seeing bared out of doors. Yet, now they were.  
  
Ambrose danced alone in the meadow, bare feet almost gliding over dew drenched grass as he spun slowly in the moonlight to music only he could hear. His eyes were closed, his hair left to curl wildly as it once had before he'd taken to gelling it back into place.  
  
But, it was the expression of utter peace and contentment, the tiny smile of dreamy pleasure that tugged at lips too often pulled into a tight little frown in the past, that arrested Wyatt's attention and caused him to watch silently from the shadow of the surrounding trees. In that moment, there had never been and never would be any more beautiful sight than this.  
  
  
  
  
 _Dancin' out on 7th street  
Dancin' through the underground  
Dancin' with the marionette  
Are you happy now?_  
  
  
It had taken researchers a year after the eclipse and the end of the Sorceress' reign to discover a way to put Glitch's brain back together. Ambrose explained it later, how things like atrophy had to be accounted for and complex spells had to be performed in order to understand the magics that had gone into the original separation.  
  
Wyatt and Glitch had become fairly inseparable during that time.  
  
Glitch was given his old quarters in the palace. He refused to take up his position as adviser until his brain was restored, so he tended to ramble about the grounds with the occasional foray into Central City or to the Sorceress' tower. Wyatt had wanted a fresh start with his son, away from the cabin that held so many memories. So, the queen had offered him a position as security adviser for the princesses. There was already a protectiveness in him toward DG, and, after hearing how he had dealt with Zero, she believed he would be the best suited and treat Azkadelia herself with more fairness than many others who would also have suffered at the Sorceress' hand.  
  
So, the two friends, Tin Man and Headcase, found themselves crossing paths several times a day. Glitch would wander up to Wyatt's office whenever he thought the other man needed a distraction. If Wyatt hadn't seen Glitch for several hours, he would search him out to make sure the headcase was staying out of trouble. Palace staff took to coming to Glitch when they couldn't get around either Wyatt's stubbornness or his anger. Wyatt was who they sought out when Glitch couldn't be found and they feared his faulty memory had led him astray in the vast halls. They watched out for each other in peacetime as much as they had during battle and if they chose to spend their evenings talking or exploring the renovated districts of Central City together, what argument could there be?  
  
The friendships forged between the four adventurers -- Wyatt, Glitch, Raw, and DG -- had been unique in his experience. They'd been forced to trust in an intensely short span, or perish for the failure. Glitch and DG both were the sort to make instant friends. Raw's abilities provided him better perspective to approach people from. Wyatt wasn't one to make friends easily or quickly. He took his time and acquaintance had to grow steadily over time, along with trust. And yet, it had.  
  
Moreso, he thought, with Glitch. Something about the headcase drew Wyatt to gravitate towards him the most. Perhaps it was because they had spent so much time just the two of them during that first adventure, traveling alone together when DG and Raw had been captured by the Sorceress. Or perhaps it was a byproduct of the great respect Wyatt held for the other man's sacrifices. Maybe something of both.  
  
Whatever it was, there was no one Wyatt would rather have at his back in a fight, and no one whose company was more welcome when he was feeling pensive. Against all odds, the headcase had become his best and closest friend.  
  
And, Glitched had rescued him.  
  
Not only from the ice and hypothermia on the Northern Island, but from himself. As that first year passed, Wyatt began to realize that his friendship with Glitch was slowly eroding eight annuals of depression and self-doubt. He would likely never be fully free of the scars the time in the suit had left upon his heart and mind. But, he suspected the gradual lessening of guilt's hold upon him had as much to do with the other man's insistence on making Wyatt 'lighten up' and 'have a heart' as it did feeling useful again in his role in the reconstruction of their world.  
  
  
  
  
 _Where do you go when you're lonely  
Where do you go when you're blue  
Where do you go when you're lonely  
I'll follow you  
When the stars go blue_  
  
  
After Glitch's brain was restored, it had taken another year for full reintegration of his memories and even that would likely never be complete.  
  
Wyatt, of course, had been there through everything.  
  
When they prepped Glitch for the surgery, it was Wyatt who refused to be shooed out by over officious medical staff and who was there to reassure the soon-to-be-ex-headcase that nothing was going to happen to him. Not on Wyatt's watch. Later, when the medical professionals determined that Glitch, not Ambrose, had woken as the predominant memories as many had expected, it had been Wyatt who showed no sign of disappointment, smiling gently and herding the royal family and their downcast gazes out of the room before returning to Glitch's bedside with a quite "Get some sleep, Sweetheart. You'll be just fine with time."  
  
The inner workings of the mind, the science and psychology behind how the brain functions were concepts Wyatt had only the more rudimentary understanding of, not having ever had reason to study it. Perhaps that was what made him better able to accept that Ambrose's memories needed to be assimilated by Glitch and not the other way around. Healers and pschiatrists, even the alchemists all had believed initial memory loss would be that of Glitch, that Ambrose would awaken and need to recall the last fifteen annuals. Hadn't the core of his memory been stored in the jar in the Sorceress' tower? And yet, the short term memory of his time as Glitch had remained to slowly discover his past self. Few who had known Ambrose were able to accept it.  
  
While the Queen would sigh softly to herself and lament memories that had not yet returned to her old friend, Wyatt could celebrate with Glitch those memories that did return.  
  
"When I was sixteen annuals, there was this dog who lived down the road."  
  
"Apparently, I'm a vegetarian. Pity, I have learned to love steak fillets so."  
  
"Cain, did you know Adora and I went to school together for a time as children?"  
  
Instead of showing up in Wyatt's office to urge the former Tin Man into a raid on the kitchens, Glitch would now appear at random times to share some story or anecdote from his past that he had just remembered. Their night time conversations now included almost as much discussion of Ambrose's past as Wyatt's. One night, when they both had discovered a surprisly shared interest in mystery and suspense novels, the conversation that followed had lasted well until morning with Glitch able to remember several of his favorites in new and exciting detail.  
  
Still, childhood memories and later hobbies were only the beginning.  
  
Soon other memories began to surface. The annuals prior to the Queen's eventual overthrow had been dark annuals for all of them, a shadowy prelude to the even darker annuals to follow. After the pleasant memories of the princesses' childhood annuals came the memories of the war, of battles fought and lost, of machines he had crafted in hope and good-will turned into devices of torture, or worse. On those nights, the two men would often sit in silence, Wyatt simply being there in case his friend wanted to talk about any of the memories now forcing the usual sunny smile into a tight frown of worry and pain. Sometimes he did. Sometimes he stayed silent. Wyatt never pushed.  
  
Despite expectations, it was not the memory of the surgery that had removed half his brain in the first place that had Glitch knocking timidly on Wyatt's door one night, silent tears pouring down his pale face as he threw himself into the ready arms of his best friend. Taking only time enough to lightly kick the door closed behind them, Wyatt had patiently stood in the middle of the room and held tightly to the trembling man as the sobs finally broke free. It didn't matter that his own shoulder was growing damp or that his sleep was interrupted.  
  
It mattered that when Glitch finally looked up at him, soft brown eyes still watery with unshed tears, and said "she never even told me. She just let me grieve with the rest. I stood beside her as an empty coffin was lowered into the ground and she let my heart break," it was Wyatt he had come to with that fresh heartbreak, Wyatt from whom he sought solace.  
  
That was the night Wyatt began to realize the truth.  
  
  
  
 _Laughin' with your pretty mouth  
Laughin' with your broken eyes  
Laughin' with your lover's tongue  
In a lullaby_  
  
  
After that, Glitch began using the name Ambrose again, began taking a more active role in completing the rebuilding efforts for the O.Z. He returned to his duties as the Queen's top advisor and finally exchanged his worn, frayed clothes for newer ones befitting his station. During the day he consulted with inventors, diplomats, and scientists, providing whatever expertise and assistance he could to support the efforts to bring their land back to it's former glory. Even the sunseeder was given his attention as modifications to make it usable without allowing it to ever be turned against it's intended purpose began to take up the bulk of his time.  
  
But at night, once dinner with the royal family was concluded and his duties for the day completed, Ambrose could still be found in a quiet corner of the palace in Wyatt's company. With the return of his memories and full knowledge, Ambrose had only become more fascinating to Wyatt. There had seemed to be no end to the variety of things the man was knowledgable in, knowledge he would share with Wyatt with all the eagerness of a child newly discovering the world.  
  
Then, he was just Glitch.  
  
Ambrose wasn't the same as he had been before. While his loyalty to Queen and country never waivered, that final memory had killed something of the friendship the two had shared. Knowing the queen had been content to let Wyatt see him through the return of his memories because she couldn't accept their loss in the first place had already started the process. The renewal of that old heartbreak had merely cemented the distance that had grown between them.  
  
That distance wasn't the only difference others remarked upon by the court as they watched his return. Indeed, some said it was these changes in him that brought about the queen's sadness. Before the war and the Sorceress' reign, Ambrose had been ambitious, driven by a need to prove himself and drive the country according to a very specific code. In the later annuals, his inventions had brought him more pride than joy. With so many plans and thoughts in his head, his attention had often wandered, but it had been the cool, passionateless wandering of a mind too preoccupied with it's own dealings to share it's discoveries.  
  
His head was still full of plans and dreams these days, but this new Ambrose was eager to share them, often stopping by his friends' rooms to discuss his latest discovery and how it could help whatever effort that particular friend was working on. Time spent in his workshop was now devoted to machines and inventions that thrilled him, brought back an excitement reminiscent of what he'd felt during those hard fifteen annuals when he'd remember something of himself, even for the briefest moment. When his mind wandered off in thought now, it was accompanied most often by a soft smile and sparkling eyes that would return to their current location with renewed optimism.  
  
The day the repairs and modifications to the sunseeder had been completed, Ambrose strode into Wyatt's office and simply stood in front of the big oak desk looking down at Wyatt with a curious expression before simply stating "It's finished. I'll finally be able to sleep tonight." How they had come together after that, how they had managed to find themselves in each others' arms, the sweet warm of their first kiss filling them both up with a buoyant light, neither could have said. But it didn't matter. The past was finally behind them and the future was to be found in that embrace.  
  
  
  
  
 _Where do you go when you're lonely_  
Where do you go when you're blue  
Where do you go when you're lonely  
I'll follow you  
When the stars go blue  
  
  
Watching him now, dancing in the bright moonlight to a cricket's waltz, Wyatt knew it had all been worth the wait and the worry and weary years that had had to come before they could find each other in this. He had loved Adora with all his heart, all he'd known to give. He loved Ambrose with both heart and soul and everything in between. They argued passionately, loved quietly, and held on to the gift of each other with ferocity.  
  
"Looking for something, Tin Man?"  
  
Soft laughter broke gently into Wyatt's thoughts and he looked up to realize the man he'd been thinking about had stopped his dance and was now standing in the meadow simply looking back at Wyatt. The silvery shine of the moonlight scattered through dark curls that were tamer than they had been three annuals ago, creating a shimmering halo about his lover's head. Ambrose was certainly no angel, but he had been Wyatt's saviour.  
  
"Think I found it." Stepping into the meadow himself, Wyatt smiled warmly as he met Ambrose's outstretched arms and swept him up into a slow, sweet caress of lips along well-loved lips. When he set the adviser down, it was with a wide grin few others ever got to see the full brilliance of except the remarkable man in his arms. "Hey Glitch? You wanna dance?"  
  
Ambrose wrapped his arms around Wyatt's neck and pressed close, swaying slightly still to the music only he could hear.  
  
"I'll lead. You follow."  
  
"Wherever you go, Sweetheart." Wyatt's arms wound around the other man's waist to pull him even closer, savoring the warmth that was his Ambrose in his arms, as Ambrose tugged him down to the ground.  
  
Some said the time without his full brain had ruined Ambrose.  
  
Wyatt said it had given him back his soul.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Song:** _When the Stars go Blue_ by Tim McGraw
> 
> I don't think I've ever written an actual songfic. A couple inspired by songs, but nothing I'd call an actual songfic. But, as I was putting together my playlist for writing Chapter Four of After Image last night, this song came on and the fic was just all of a sudden there.


End file.
